Thistles
by Ange Amour
Summary: Jolene Merriweather is a young woman in her late twenties who moved six months ago from Reading, Pennsylvania to Seattle, Washington in order to pursue her dream in writing. She ended up working as a waitress at a restaurant neighboring Seattle Grace Hospital and wrote stories, poems and essays in her spare time. She moved into the attic of Meredith's house.


Disclaimer: I don't own _Grey's Anatomy_.

Note: The name I chose for the patient is Jolene Merriweather.

Summary: Jolene Merriweather is a young woman in her late twenties who moved six months ago from Reading, Pennsylvania to Seattle, Washington in order to pursue her dream in writing. She ended up working as a waitress at a restaurant neighboring Seattle Grace Hospital and wrote stories, poems and essays in her spare time. She moved into the attic of Meredith's house and she currently lives with Meredith, Izzy and George.

 **Thistles**

Jolene Merriweather abruptly slumped in her black, leather, cushioned computer chair with a weary and frustrated sigh and groan as she lowered her eyelids and stared at her laptop with a vacant expression. Her elbows on the desk, she leaned forward, and the palms of her hands supported the sides of her head. She let out another weary, frustrated sigh and groan. "Maaaan…" _I've only just started this story and it's not gotten any longer or any more detailed than when I first moved into Meredith's home and that was about six or seven months ago._

Weary and frustrated tears began to heavily brim the rims of her big teal colored eyes. She squeezed her eyes shut, leaned back and intertwined her short, stubby fingers with her thick, mid-shoulder length, blonde hair as she lifted her small, rounded chin towards the ceiling and quickly ran her small hands back and forth several times. "HAAA! WHAT DO I DO, NOW?" _I'll never finish my story and it'll never be nearly as good as all the other writers! It's not like I'm rich or have any super-secret connections, so it has to be good!_

George O'Malley, who had gotten used to hanging out with her inside her attic bedroom over the past six months, looked away from the medical book he was reading and his eyes landed on her. "You scare me when you freak out. What's the matter?" _I haven't known her for very long, but it feels like I've known her for a very long time. I guess we just connect like that. It's really weird, but whatever._

Jolene suddenly felt her fingernails scrape against her scalp and she began to cry. "Ow, waaahaaa, that hurt," she whined. _Darnit, here I go again!_ She released her hair, lowered her head to normal level, opened her eyes, and turned around to see her newest friend lying down on his stomach on her very neatly made bed with its brilliantly fluffy pink and black color striped bedspread design and its old, white metal railing, propped up by his elbows, staring at her with concern. A smile splayed along her bright, pink lips and she laughed. "Hiya, George! How are you?" She had forgotten George was even in the room.

He smiled back at her. "I'm fine. What about you?" _Man, how many times has she done this in her lifetime?_ He noticed that she seemed to behave like she was at that moment quite a lot. That made him wonder and want to ask questions about whatever it was she was working on. Of course, she didn't work at the hospital like the rest of them. In fact, she worked as a waitress at a neighboring restaurant, always working very long hours and arriving at home very sleepy.

Jolene waved her right hand at him nervously. "Oh, no worries, here, George! I'm fine!" _Okay, so, he's getting worried about me for the thousandth time it would seem._ She didn't like it when he worried about her. She thought of it as her inconveniencing him and she didn't know how to fix that.

He chuckled. _She's priceless._ _He sat up, scooted himself closer towards the edge of the bed and then stood up from the bed onto his own two feet. He approached her. "It's actually kind of cool watching you. It's just that just can be somewhat scary when you freak out about what seems like every little detail to…to…" He stopped and stood in front of her as he suddenly forgot what she had told him she was working on. A while back, she had told him that she was working on something very important to her._

 _Jolene gave him an expression that was very straight, very serious and almost lacking any kind of emotion. "Story."_ _It's a story that I'm currently working on._ _The way she said it, it was as if her writing a story was the most natural thing ever. It was expressed as if it was something she just did. It was a part of her._

 _His eyes widened and he blinked. "What?"_ _Wait. Is she serious?_ _He couldn't believe he had forgotten the simple fact that Jolene, his new friend, was actually a writer on the side. It seemed though to him that writing was the utmost important, even going so far as to sometimes seem more important than her waitress job._

 _Jolene nodded. "Yeah. It's a story I'm currently working on."_ She thought for a moment and then her eyes lit up and she smiled brightly, practically jumping in her seat. "Oh, yeah! I forgot to tell you!" She excitedly closed her eyes, placed her hands over her mouth and laughed.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "What are you so excited about?" _Hmmm…I wonder…Would she get along with Christina and Alex?_ He had no idea why he was thinking such things, but he did feel curious about it. He struggled to imagine her interacting all that much with Christina or Alex. Christina seemed to be too competitive and serious while Alex seemed to be too much of a butthole. They would probably make a woman like Jolene cry.

She nodded excitedly. "Oh, you'll see!" _So as not to interfere with my most recent work, I'll save and exit. I'll open the start of my project._ _She opened her eyes and turned back to her laptop._

George stared at her and then the computer and then right back at her. _Wow…_ _The woman right there in front of him seemed so unlike the other human beings he was surrounded by. "I think…that…" He realized he was mumbling to himself and decided to retreat into his own thought process._ _I think that maybe she's so interesting I want to share her with everyone. Maybe that's why I keep wondering how she would behave around Christina and Alex._

She pulled up the home page of her very own website she had also been working on along with her story. "Okay, George." _I know I'm just beaming with pride, but oh my gosh this is so awesome!_

He stared at her website, dumbfounded. _Wait. She did this?_ "What is this you've made?" He wondered why she wasn't working in the field of medicine just like him and the others. She seemed to him like she was really, really smart.

She laughed at his reaction. "Aw, George! What's the matter," she teased as she turned her head just slightly to the right in order to glance at him. _It's like he's never seen anything like this before._

George cleared his throat as he regained his composure. He was truly at a loss for words at first, but it was at that very moment when he figured out just what he was going to say. "Okay. Don't get mad at me for this. I mean no offense and I am by no means trying to tell you what to do. It's just that you seem really smart. How come you didn't enter the medical field?" _I hope I don't sound too random._

Jolene slowly blinked and shrugged her shoulders with a smile. She absolutely refused to turn around and face him. "What can I say? I suck at Math." _I almost failed a lot of my classes my senior year of high school._ She felt like she had tried and failed miserably.

He turned her chair around as to where she was facing him, placing his hands firmly on the handles. "Well, there is more to being involved in the medical field than Math," he told her. _Why does everyone think there is a lot of Math involved with the medical field? Well, there is a good chunk of Math, but that's not all there is._

She stared at him in confusion, blinking. "Wait. Why are we having this conversation?" _Um…I don't think we know each other well enough for us to be having this conversation._ Her entire body itched to turn the chair around and stare at her computer screen. She would've given anything not to see his expression at that moment. In a way, it made her feel somewhat nervous and her heart started to pound.

He gave her a look of confidence. "I believe you would be a good medical intern at Seattle Grace Hospital." He thought for a moment and then sighed. "Honestly. For as short a time as I've known you, you seem like you're very stubborn. Why not hang out with other human beings, for once? No one's going to talk you down, or anything." _She seems to always be either at the restaurant or in front of her computer._

She shook her head with a sad sigh, her smile turning sad. "No. I want to stay here. I'm not normal, anyway, you know that." _As short a time as we've spent together, I'm pretty sure he's picked up on the fact that I don't behave like other women._ She had met Izzy and Meredith, but hadn't connected nearly as well as she had with George. 

He smiled kindly at her. Kindness is what radiated from his eyes. "What I do know is that you're not a vampire or a gargoyle or whatever." _I'll have a talk with Izzy and Meredith._ He figured she had stayed far away from Izzy and Meredith the moment she had met them because she felt so different.

"No dip, Sherlock," she responded sarcastically. Her heart pounded even more and she struggled to breathe. She could feel her entire body heating up and sweat forming all over her body. _Why do I feel this way? Can we please just stop talking and go back to just being here and doing our own thing?_

He could just feel her tenseness. "I'm not an idiot." It was all he could say in a very lame attempt at trying to convince her to go all out with her life. _I can tell she really wants to, but she doesn't have the confidence._

She struggled against his grip on the handles of the chair. "You sound like one." She reached towards his hands and began to pry them off the handles. "Please, just let go," she told him. _I feel more comfortable going the way I'm going._ She felt very strongly that if anything were to change, she would fail miserably just like had done time and time again.

He released the chair and watched as she turned around, shut down her computer, and closed it. "What's wrong," he asked. _Why does she seem to be mad at me all of a sudden?_ He had meant to make a point, not cause her to be completely out of whack.

She stood from the chair, her back to him. "I don't know what's wrong with me." _There is something seriously wrong with me. I'm not like other women._ She felt like a complete alien.

He reached out and grabbed her hand. "You're upset. I can tell." _Maybe I shouldn't have said anything at all._ He began to really regret talking to her about things. He felt as if he had just ruined the moment completely with his own two sense.

She turned back to him with a glare. "Look. Why don't you just leave it be, okay?" _I don't like this at all._ Her vision turned watery as tears gathered in her eyes. She struggled to keep them under wraps. She absolutely refused to cry in front of him. Crying was a sign of weakness according to her. She didn't want him to see her like that. She didn't want him to see her as weak.

His tone and expression were very gentle. "Tell me what's wrong." _I won't tell anyone else if it's nothing too serious._ He really wanted to know why she behaved all insecure. He figured that something had to have caused her to feel and act the way she was.

She tugged herself out of his grip. "No!" _Oh wow. That sounded a little harsh._ She hadn't meant for her to sound so harsh towards him.

He decided to just let her go. _She'll tell me when she's ready. If I push and push, she will resent me forever._ _He knew he had a point and he knew that she knew he had a point. He could tell that she wasn't exactly living the life she wanted to live. It was somewhat obvious to him._

She ran from the room. _Stupid George! Leave me be! I want to be alone right now!_ She ran into towards a random door, reached out and grabbed the doorknob. As she turned the doorknob, a horrible silence rang inside of her ears. She ignored the silence as she opened the door, entered the room and then shut the door behind herself. "He's an idiot," she mumbled to herself as she plopped herself down onto the floor and laid back.

Hours later, she felt the air from someone sitting down on the floor beside her. _George!_ She opened the eyes she had no idea had closed and sat up, about ready to rip him a new one. However, she very soon realized that it wasn't George who had found her. It was someone who she hadn't met before. Surprised, she fell over onto the man.

He caught her in his arms. "Whoa. Easy there." _I didn't expect to find a woman on the floor in the bathroom._ He wondered if she had slept there all night long. He wondered why she was sleeping on the bathroom floor to begin with.

She flailed about in his arms, struggling to get away really fast. "What the heck?! Who are you?! I was about to rip George a new one!" _I'm so mad at him right now! He got all up into affairs that aren't his own!_

"Figures," he mumbled to himself, sighing and rolling his eyes. _George always has the tendency to break a woman's heart or make her extremely mad at him._ "My name is Derek Shepherd. I'm a doctor at Seattle Grace Hospital. Who might you be?"

She stopped flailing about and blinked at him, sitting up straight on the floor in front of him, watching as the man dropped his arms to his sides. _Wait. Is this the man I hear Meredith talking about in her sleep? How come we've just now run into each other? I mean, he has been sleeping over here at times, right?_ She felt her entire face heat up. "M-My name is Jolene Merriweather and…and…I-I'm not mad at him. It's just that he laid the pressure on me awfully thick." The more she stuttered over the words in her sentences, the more she felt her entire face heat up.

He gave her a warm look, thinking about how George really is. "Well, I know George might be dense at times and then a little too 'hit the nail on the head' at other times, but I think he might just be worried about you." _Actually, I'm sure of it. He's the nice guy._

Jolene sighed. She then proceeded to laugh nervously as she stood. "My story didn't go as I had planned. I struggled. I got weary and frustrated." _I have to get ready for my shift right now or I'll be late._ She had already been just a little bit late earlier that week.

He stood up beside her. He could see her teal colored eyes glowing in the morning light. _She's got such pretty eyes. How did I not notice to start with?_ "Oh? Is that all?"

She nodded and smiled. "Lame, but true." _I think my behavior was totally uncalled for._ She suddenly felt guilty the way she had treated George. It wasn't his fault she was so emotional at times. It was actually her fault.

He turned towards the open doorway and took one step out into the hallway. He then proceeded to stop and turn around. "You need to take a break every now and again. Don't allow that to stress you out." _I can tell that she's the type that works really hard on everything._

She nodded. "Right."

An hour later, fluffy flakes of white snow floated from the heavens as Jolene began to make her way towards the restaurant where she worked. White snow blanketed the ground. Her hot breath mixed with the cold air around her in a cloud of fog in front of her face. She stared with a vacant expression in her eyes and on her face. Her vision blurred and she saw sparkles. Her head throbbed and spun. _Where…?_ She swayed and her knees buckled as she fell onto her knees, then, onto her right side. Her eyelids felt so heavy and her body felt so weak, so heavy, it hurt to move. She closed her eyes.

George, who had been walking on his way to work as well, saw what had happened and he rushed towards her. He stopped right there beside her and dropped to his knees. He then reached out and gently touched her. "Hey. Jolene."

She didn't respond.

"Jolene?"

She still didn't respond.

He didn't know why, but he hesitated at first, not knowing what to do. He halfway expected her to wake up at any second and knock him a good one. "O-Okay. Let's see." He gently lifted her up into his arms and began to carry her all the way to the hospital. _She just suddenly collapsed. It's a good thing we just so happen to have been going to work around the same time. Man, she's so tiny!_ He had stayed behind at home for a little bit after she had left just so that they weren't walking together. He really didn't want to upset her any more than she already was.

He suddenly noticed a good amount of heat radiating through her thickly layered clothes. He looked down at her for just a moment. Sh _e looks pale and she's breathing heavily. I have to hurry._ _He picked up the pace and it wasn't long before he had arrived at the hospital. "Help! I need help over here," he called out._

Miranda Bailey came rushing out of the emergency sliding doors. "O'Malley, what in the world is wrong with you?" As soon as she noticed the young woman in his arms, she shut up. _Oh gosh, this doesn't look good!_ She rushed back inside to grab a vacant bed.

It wasn't long before she was back with the vacant bed. "Okay. Lay her down on here," she ordered her underling. _I'm noticing him looking totally clueless right now._ That was exactly how he looked to her at that moment. She had no idea what had gotten into him all of a sudden. He was usually a really good intern.

George laid her down on the vacant hospital bed, grabbed one end while Miranda grabbed the other and together they made their way inside the hospital emergency area. "Doctor Bailey, she has a fever and her breathing isn't normal." He glanced down at her with concern. _Man, she looks so pale and her cheeks look so red._

Hours later, Jolene woke to find herself inside a hospital room. She frantically looked around the hospital room and reached for the IV in her arm, about ready to pull it out. "Hey! I need to go right now or I'll be late!" She hadn't realized it just yet, but it was way past time for her shift to start and George had already taken the time to walk over to the restaurant and inform her boss that she was very sick and wouldn't be at work.

She yanked the IV out of her arm and climbed out of the hospital bed. She began walking towards the door. _I have to get out of here!_ She was very determined to get out of the hospital and to her job.

George opened the door to the hospital room and noticed that Jolene had taken the IV out of her arm and was already on her way out the door. "Just what do you think you're doing?! Are you insane?!" _I'm going to page Dr. Bailey if things get out of hand, but, for now, I think I've got things under control._

George glared at his friend as he approached her. "Jeez, woman, you're so stubborn!" _She's being stubborn. That's all there is to it._ As little time as they had spent together, he noticed her stubbornness. He had a feeling, from the way she had displayed her stubbornness, that she had absolutely no choice but to grow into the stubborn woman he knew.

Jolene growled and hissed at him as if she were a cat. "Shut up, George!" _I'm tired of being sick!_ Ever since she was a very little girl, she had gotten sick very often. Sometimes she would become deathly ill. As time wore on, she began to get fed up with just how many times she would get sick.

George came up beside her and he stared at her as if she were insane. "You're human, you moron." _You need to rest, drink plenty of water and take whatever medication you're prescribed._ He felt as if she thought she absolutely had to do every single thing on her own. That made him think about how she must have felt.

She glared at him. "I'm tired of always being sick. I need to get to my job. Don't try and stop me." She started to rush pass him, but he quickly wrapped his arms around her waist in an attempt to bring her to a halt. _I really need to get out of here!_

She struggled to free herself from his firm, yet gentle grip. "Let go of me!" It felt so strange for someone to be holding her like George was. No one ever did that to her. In fact, everyone would always just let her go, let her run things. _I-I…What do I do?_

"Stay put and I will let you go." _This must be coming from somewhere. It's not just something that's just now happening._ He could tell that her behavior wasn't just something that randomly sprung to life. It had to have come from some very deep roots.

"I'll die of boredom," she complained.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "You sound like a spoiled child, you know that?"

Izzy appeared.

Jolene smiled, yanked one arm free, and waved excitedly. "Izzy! Hiya! How are you?" _Honestly, I don't know what to think of her._ She still didn't know what to make of her. Izzy seemed kind of ditzy. She had no idea if that was just her imagination.

Izzy gave Jolene a strong, steady look. "Jolene, you have to listen to George." _If she doesn't listen to any one of us, her condition could worsen._

She whined, "Aw, Izzy! Not you, too! I'm bored out of my mind!" That was when she coughed hard and grasped her chest, gasping for air. She collapsed into George.

George lifted her into his arms, carried her to the hospital bed and gently laid her down. "Jolene, you have to remain calm." He remembered seeing very small spells of the same thing that was happening to her at that moment.

A bloody taste filled her throat, an unknown substance boiling at the very back of it. "I-It…tastes…b-bloody…," she managed to gasp out as George reached for the oxygen mask on the table near the bed, grabbed it and strapped it to her face.

He added together what he had witnessed the last few times he had witnessed her having quite smaller spells than the one she was currently having. He remembered she had an inhaler. _It might be an infection in her lungs._ "She might have an infection in her lungs."

After many tests, it was confirmed that she had a very severe case of bronchitis.


End file.
